Thursday, February 07, 2013

Curt Schilling, in a Wednesday interview on ESPN Radio, said toward the end of his tenure with the Red Sox he was encouraged to use PEDs by “members of the organization.”

“At the end of my career, in 2008 when I had gotten hurt, there was a conversation that I was involved in in which is was brought to my attention that this is a potential path I might want to pursue,” Schilling told Colin Cowherd.

Asked for more details, Schilling said the conversation occurred in the clubhouse and involved “former members of the organization — they’re no longer there. It was an incredibly uncomfortable conversation. Because it came up in the midst of a group of people. The other people weren’t in the conversation but they could clearly hear the conversation. And it was suggested to me that at my age and in my situation, why not? What did I have to lose? Because if I wasn’t going to get healthy, it didn’t matter. And if I did get healthy, great.

“It caught me off guard, to say the least. That was an awkward situation.”

Reader Comments and Retorts

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

Well, he also said that "it wasn't anyone in uniform," so I guess that leaves a trainer as the most likely suspect. But, like Walt said, that still leaves ownership, administrative staff, janitors, etc. as technical possibilities.

Schilling reported the incident to Theo Epstein, then the team’s general manager. Epstein was required to inform Major League Baseball and an investigation subsequently took place.

“Our office was notified. We take any report like this seriously and there was an investigation," MLB vice president Pat Courtney said.

Courtney would not say what the results of that inquiry were because it was personnel matter involving a team employee.

Schilling said the person no longer works for the Red Sox, something that two baseball sources confirmed. The team has made a number of changes in their medical staff in recent years, but none apparently were as a direct result of the 2008 investigation.

For the record Eso, this, I think is why people hate Schilling. Not because he's Republican or because he's Christian or even because he has a big mouth. It's because he's a God damn attention whore. And what better way to be a drama queen and get attention than to play this childish I-have-a-secret-and-you-cant-know game.

Peter Abraham reports that Schilling told the Sox, who reported this to MLB:
Schilling reported the incident to Theo Epstein, then the team’s general manager. Epstein was required to inform Major League Baseball and an investigation subsequently took place.

“Our office was notified. We take any report like this seriously and there was an investigation," MLB vice president Pat Courtney said.

Courtney would not say what the results of that inquiry were because it was personnel matter involving a team employee.

Schilling said the person no longer works for the Red Sox, something that two baseball sources confirmed. The team has made a number of changes in their medical staff in recent years, but none apparently were as a direct result of the 2008 investigation.
As it turns out, back in 2009, the Red Sox fired some clubhouse guys who were implicated in dealing steroids. (Globe: Sox fired two in steroid case.)

Geez, well now I'm actually a lot more sympathetic to Schilling than before. I mean, this has been public knowledge for like 4 years? With articles about it in the paper and everything? I guess Schilling was just stating something he must of thought everyone was aware of already. This isn't a bombshell at all - we just seem to have embarrassingly short memories.

Make the quote from the Jed Hoyer thread all the more curious: “The first I ever heard of that was this morning when I saw it, so clearly, no, it didn’t ring true to me at all,”

I suppose Theo could have handled it 100% on his own, and not mentioned it to his assistants. But that seems unlikely, and going from "no way, this is preposterous" to "this is old news, nothing to see here" reeks of cover up and spin.